Mesoporous Silica Imprinted Nanocomposites for Selective Adsorption and Detection of Levofloxacin

The proper treatment of antibiotics has become a formidable challenge in environmental remediation. In this work, a mesoporous molecularly imprinted polymer (mMIP) was successfully fabricated on SiO2 by the sol gel process and used to selectively adsorb and detect antibiotic levofloxacin (LEVO). The adsorption characteristics of LEVO-mMIP were explored in diverse respects (e.g., kinetics, isotherms, and selectivity). The mMIP exhibited higher LEVO adsorption capacity (115 mg/g), higher specific selectivity, and faster kinetics (10 min). The prepared mMIP also exhibited enhanced reusability/durability (n = 8 cycles). The LEVO-mMIP was thus used as dispersive solid phase extraction material for the extraction of LEVO from actual samples (e.g., tap/river water and pharmaceutical formulations) with the aid of high performance liquid chromatography (LOD of 0.07 ng/mL and good recoveries of 90.76–108.17% (RSD of 2.55–5.09%)). As such, the potential utility of mMIP is validated for the adsorption and detection of LEVO in environmental matrices.